Video: Westfield football players help coach propose

Just like Westfield has prepared for one of the many victories the Mustangs collected during the football season, the team did just the same in preparing for one of their own’s big moment.

Assistant coach Justin Outten proposed to girlfriend Vanessa Sanchez over the weekend, using a video he recorded with the help of the football team. In asking his players to help, Outten said he wouldn’t have it any other way. He did think about more traditional proposals, but it came back to football.

“I’m with these kids the majority of the time throughout the season and the offseason,” Outten said. “I love the kids I work with, I wake up every morning looking forward to work and it’s a big part of my life – and her’s because she supports me and the football team.

“So I figured if it’s going to happen, it has to involve those guys.”

Before even getting to that point, Outten nearly tricked his players into thinking he was leaving, telling the team “it’s been great these last seven years and it’s time for a change.” After revealing his actual news, the tone quickly changed.

“And when I say the room, the word erupted doesn’t give it justice,” he said. “They were very, very excited and very eager to do it. It took me about 10 minutes to calm them down because I had to give them the game plan.

Outten and the Mustangs went to work, planning as they do before a game.

The video, which is closing on 50,000 views on YouTube and is making waves across the media circuit, shows the Mustangs running drills Thursday before a “fight” breaks out. The skirmish is quickly broken up, to which the players go down on a knee in near unison and Outten reveals a sign asking Sanchez to marry him.

“In the video, you can see there’s not a lot of individuals trying to make themselves stand out,” Outten said. “They’re very, very focused in the video, they’re disciplined, and that’s what really got me excited about watching it. Almost brought a tear to my eye because they were ready and they were focused at the job at hand.”

Outten sent a text to Sanchez about a fight. An assistant director of food operations at UH, Sanchez expressed her concern for the team and Outten said he would show her the video of it later.

“She would go to every game, she was there for me after practices and days when I would come home frustrated,” Outten said. “She understood it – even in the cold and extreme heat, she was going through it. She would go on the field after every game and congratulate the kids and the staff.

“It hit home because she know how involved I am with this program and the kids. She really did appreciate it and said it blew any proposal idea out of the water that she thought she was going to get.”

The video then cuts to Sanchez watching the practice with Outten standing nearby, when she sees the team – and Outten – down on a knee, he finishes off the proposal.

“It felt like an eternity on my knee,” he said. “I was looking in her eyes and she wasn’t really there. Later, she said it was an out-of-body experience.

“She’s trying to put it altogether and when I finally got the ‘Yes,’ the game plan was successful and we did win the game.”